


Hey, Jealousy

by Brinny



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: BFFs, Barry and Iris are the Gold Standard, F/M, Jealousy, Multiple Pairings, POV Multiple, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 19:06:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18267545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brinny/pseuds/Brinny
Summary: Wherein Barry and Iris are the best of BFFs. To the extent that they do weird pseudo couple things (wearing each other's clothes, dropping by unannounced at 2:00 am, staying in each other's beds), without noticing, while in relationships with other people.





	Hey, Jealousy

  1. _Eddie Thawne  
_



When they’re getting ready for bed, Iris can feel Eddie staring at her. She squints back at him while she takes out her earrings and sets them down on the nightstand, but he just keeps looking. Almost as if he’s studying her.

“What?” she finally asks.

“Hmm? Nothing. Just, did you ever go to SCU?”

“Uh, no,” she answers.

She climbs under the blankets and Eddie reluctantly follows.

“Huh. Okay,” he says, slowly. Then he frowns. “So, uh, what’s with the shirt?”

Iris looks down at the worn, Starling City University t-shirt. It’s Barry’s, from his freshman year. He did a few semesters there before moving back home to be closer to her and Joe and his dad.

“Oh,” she says, pulling at the faded lettering. “This isn’t mine.”

“Yeah. I worked that much out. Whose is it?” Eddie asks. He tries to smile, tries to be light-hearted, because he isn’t sure he’s going to like the answer to his next question. “Old boyfriend’s?”

Iris laughs. “What? No. No, it’s Barry’s. Probably just got mixed up in the laundry or something.”

“Okay.” He starts to nod, but it quickly changes to a confused shake of his head. “So, wait, why are you wearing it?”

“I don’t know. I guess we just used to do it all the time growing up,” she says, shrugging. Her eyes narrow. “Why? Does it bother you?”

“You wearing some other guy’s clothes?” he asks. “Yeah. Kind of.”

“Okay, then I won’t wear it.” Iris smiles and pulls the shirt up and off over her head. She leans against him, bare chested, and puts her lips to his ear. “Better?”

And Eddie should feel comforted, happy even, as his topless girlfriend presses herself into him, but he can’t shake the unsettling feeling in his stomach. Because it feels exactly like jealousy.

 

 

  1. _Daphne Dean_



 

Around 2:00 a.m., Barry’s phone buzzes with a text from Iris. _i’m outside._ He looks over at Daphne laying next to him, her mouth hanging open as she snores softly, then back at his phone. Another text: _have beer :)_

Barry quietly climbs out of bed, careful not to wake his sleeping girlfriend. Noting that he’s wearing only his underwear, he grabs a somewhat clean t-shirt off the floor, pulls it on, and avoids that one creaky floorboard, as he opens his dorm room door.

Iris is standing on the other side, promised six-pack in one hand and her phone in the other. She looks up at him, a surprised sort of smile on her mouth, like she wasn’t sure he was going to answer.  

“Hey.”

“Iris,” Barry says, voice thick with sleep. He squints against the dim light in the hallway and, after rubbing at his eyes, moves his hand through what has got to be some substantial bedhead. “Iris, what are you doing here? Do you know what time it is?”

“I had a fight with dad. A big one. Like, epically big.”

Iris and Joe don’t have a lot of fights, let alone big ones.

“You had a fight with Joe? What happened?”

“Well, I applied to the academy and he totally freaked when he found out.”

Barry nods. He knew that Iris was thinking of applying and he knew Joe was going to freak when he found out. And of course Joe was going to find out, because, hello, _Detective_ West.

“He’s being completely unreasonable, Barry,” she says. She gestures wildly and almost drops her phone, so she tucks it away in the back pocket of her jeans. “He’s refusing to even talk to me. Like, he’s totally shut me out. It’s all disappointing stares and angry grunts.”

Barry is pretty sure that he told Iris that this is exactly what would happen if Joe knew that she was applying. But since saying _I told you so_ isn’t going to help her now, Barry just keeps nodding and, without giving it much thought, steps to the side and lets her in.

Iris pushes past him, stripping off her jacket and slamming the six-pack down on Barry’s beat-up, second-hand coffee table. He makes a dive to settle the clanking bottles as Iris curiously lifts an eyebrow.

“What?” she asks.

Barry points to the bed, where Daphne lets out a delicate snort, and with his finger to his lips, says, “Shh.”

Iris’s eyes go wide with surprise. Bringing a hand up to cover her open mouth, she whispers through her fingers, “Oh. Oh, no. Barry, I’m so sorry.”

“No. No, it’s okay,” he whispers back. “Just, you know, we’ve got to be quiet.”

She drops her hand so he can see her smirk and, keeping her voice low, asks, “So, when did you two start having sleepovers?”

“Okay, well, we’re not calling it that, because we’re not pre-teen girls who spend the night braiding each other’s hair and gossiping about boys.”

“Oh, yeah?” she says. Her smirk turns a bit devious. “Then how did you spend the night?”

Barry grits out a reprimanding, “Iris!”

And he says it just a little bit louder and sharper than he means to. It’s the louder that makes Daphne sit up with a start. She flips on the lamp on the nightstand and then shields her eyes from the sudden light, looking at Barry from beneath her hand.  

“Barry? What’s going on?” she asks. Her fingers dig into her eyes. “What time is it?”

“It’s late,” he says. He sits down beside her, pressing a kiss to her hair. “Iris needed to talk, so she came over. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up. We should have gone out in the hall.”

Daphne frowns, sleepily taking in Iris standing in Barry’s dorm room. At 2:08 in the morning. She nods. “Oh. Hey, Iris.”

Iris gives a pathetic, embarrassed wave. “Hey, Daphne. So sorry.”

“Go back to sleep,” Barry tells her. Moving his fingers over her messy braid, he gives her another quick kiss, but looks over at Iris, who nods back at him in understanding. “Iris and I can finish up in the morning.”

“No,” Daphne says, shaking her head. “No, it’s fine. Stay, have your talk.”

When she gets out of bed, she takes the sheet with her, wrapped around her hips so she can slip her leggings on beneath its cover and Iris looks like she possibly couldn’t be any more mortified.

“I’ll just head back to my room,” Daphne says, shrugging.

Now dressed, she shoves her books into her backpack and Barry, trying to be helpful, unplugs her phone from his charger and hands it to her.

“You don’t have to go,” he says.

“Yeah, I brought beverages,” Iris adds. “So, we can totally just hang. Or whatever.”

Daphne eyes the bottles of cheap beer on the coffee table as she leans down to pull on her shoes. “No, that’s okay. But thanks. You know, I have a paper due Monday and I haven’t started yet, so I should probably get on that.”

Barry, who’s doubtful that she’s going to go back to her room to work on her paper, grabs at her hand and says, “Daph, honestly, you don’t have to go.”

“Call me later,” she says, leaning up to kiss his cheek. Her eyes look sad. “Okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Yes. Yes, I will call you.”

After Daphne leaves, and Barry and Iris are settled on Barry’s small dorm room sofa, beers in hand, Iris looks over at him, still embarrassed that she basically forced his half-asleep and half-naked girlfriend out of his bed. 

“I’m so sorry, Barr. I totally ruined your date.”

“No. I mean, yes, absolutely you did, but the actual date portion of the night was pretty much over. So, you know, it’s okay.”

“It’s not okay. She was spending the night and I didn’t know that you guys were, um. I mean, I guess I should have called. Or something.” Iris takes a hurried swig of her beer. “I really am sorry, Barry.”

“Iris, it’s fine,” he says, laughing at her flustered apologies. “Look, you needed someone to talk to and you’re my best friend. And, yeah, calling first wouldn’t be a bad idea, but I’m always going to be here for you.”

“Yeah, but I shouldn’t expect you to just drop everything for me.”

“For real, don’t worry about it. Daphne’s cool, she understands,” he says, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into him. He sips at his beer. “So, you really thought Joe wouldn’t find out about you applying to CCPD? Iris, c’mon, he’s a detective.”

 

  1. _Becky Cooper_



 

“Barry, what’s this?” Becky picks up a blue container off his desk. She makes a face when she sees what’s inside. “You don’t wear a retainer.”

“Uh, no. Iris does.”

“So, shouldn’t her retainer be in her room?” she asks, sitting down in his lap.

“Um, yeah. I guess,” Barry says, distractedly. Using the end of his pen, he scratches at the side of his nose and tries to concentrate on finishing his English homework while Becky drums her fingers on his shoulders, prompting him on. “Iris probably just forgot it in here. She only has to wear it during the night.”

“During the night?” Becky repeats. Her mouth pops open, dramatic and cartoonish, and she says, “Oh my god. Barry did she sleep in your room last night?”

“Huh? Um, yeah.”

Becky pushes herself off him with a glare, her nostrils flaring.

“Oh,” he says. He laughs. “Becky, no. C’mon. It wasn’t, no, not like that. We were just talking and we fell asleep.”

“Barry,” she hisses. She tightly crosses her arms over her chest. “That’s, like, really inappropriate. She’s, like, she’s like your foster sister.”

Barry frowns. “I mean, she’s not, Iris isn’t my sister. She’s my best friend.”

“And I’m your girlfriend.”

“Yeah,” he confirms, smiling. He pulls her down by her elbows to press a quick kiss to her lips. “I know.”

“So, don’t you think if you’re going to be sharing your bed with another girl, it should be me?”

And Barry completely misses the point and says, “Yeah, I _really_ don’t think Joe would be cool with that.”

 

 

  1. _John/Jim whose last name she forgets from Jitters_



 

Iris is busy re-stocking the display case with fresh muffins, as the new guy (who, on their last shift, asked her out on a date) wipes down the counter. He nods his head towards the table where Barry is seated.

“Who is that guy? I swear he comes in just to stare at you.”

When Iris looks up, Barry catches her eye and gives her a smile and a wave. She waves back with the metal tongs in her hand. He laughs.

“That’s just Barry,” she says, shrugging. She stacks the last of the blueberry muffins and then wipes her hands down the front of her apron. “And he doesn’t come in here to stare at me. He works over at CCPD.”

“Wait,” John/Jim says, “ _that’s_ Barry? That’s the guy you’re always talking about?”

Iris rolls her eyes. “I am not always talking about him.”

“You guys ever date?”

“No. I mean, we went to junior prom, but that doesn’t count.”

“You went to prom together?”

“Junior prom,” she corrects.

“Right. The nerdy kid?”

“He’s not that nerdy.”

“Iris, he’s reading a comic book.”

Leaning forward on her elbows, she can see what she had previously thought was a casefile that he’d brought with him to read on his lunch break, is actually a copy of _She-Hulk_.

“Okay. Yes, the nerdy kid.”

“Why?”

“He’s my best friend,” she says. “Neither of us were dating anyone junior year, so we went together.”

“You guys hook up after?”

“What?” she asks. She grabs the cloth from his hands, twisting it around her fingers, like she’s going to swat him with it. “No. No, of course not.”

“Didn’t even sneak up to a hotel room to fool around?”

“No,” she says. She playfully smacks him with the wet cloth and he quickly holds his hands up in surrender, so she continues, “We danced, we drank punch, and then we drove back to our house.”

“Wait. What does ‘our house’ mean?”

“Well, Barry lived with us.”

“I’m sorry, he what?”

“After his mom died. My dad took him in.”

“Huh,” Jim/John comments.

“Huh, what?”

“No. Nothing. I guess I just thought he was a dork with a crush, but you’re saying you grew up together?”

“He’s not a dork.”

John/Jim lifts an eyebrow. Probably because she’s protesting the wrong part of his accusation.

“And he doesn’t have a crush on me,” she supplies.

“I don’t know, Iris. Best friends, junior prom dates, living in the same house? Sounds like you two have a lot of history.”

“Well, yeah. But not that kind of history.”

“Yeah, no. Sure. I get it,” he says, nodding. And then, “Damn. You know what though? I totally forgot I can’t do that dinner date tonight. I’ve got a thing.”

“Oh,” Iris says. She can feel her face fall, but she forces her mouth into a smile. “That’s okay. Another night?”

“Sure. Yeah, another night.”

 

  1. _Patty Spivot_



Patty is sort of a suspicious person. It’s an extremely useful trait to have in her professional life as a cop, but not so much in her personal life.

She’s gotten better over the years. Really, she has. But sometimes, she just can’t help it.

Like, there’s this one time when she first starts dating Barry and she stops by his lab after her shift is done. But when she gets to the door, she can hear voices. Two voices. Barry and a girl. The door is open slightly, so Patty does what any suspicious person would do and pushes her face up to the gap to get a better look inside.

She sees Barry and the girl. (The girl who just happens to be crazy gorgeous.)

“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” Barry says to the crazy gorgeous girl.

The girl nods sadly and Patty can see tears clinging to her lower lashes. Patty wishes she looked that pretty when she cried. Barry uses his thumbs to wipe at the girl’s wet cheeks and then brings her face closer to his to kiss her forehead.

Oh my god. Who is this woman?

“I should go. Thanks, Barry.”

Barry releases her, but says, “Text me when you get home. Okay?”

She smiles. “Yeah, okay.”

Patty jumps back from the door and then takes a few steps back, so it looks like she’s walking up just as the girl is leaving. The girl ducks her head and says, “excuse me” as she moves out of Patty’s way and heads down the stairs.

Patty takes a deep breath and promises herself that she won’t ask Barry about the crazy gorgeous girl. Except after he greets her with a kiss and tells her to take a seat in his chair while he finishes up, she spots a photo of him and the girl on his desk. And she can’t help it.

“She’s pretty,” Patty comments, picking up the picture frame.

Barry glances back at her over his shoulder, looks at the frame in her hands. “Who? Iris?”

And Patty feels every muscle in her body relax. Because the crazy gorgeous girl is Iris West. Joe’s daughter.

“Yeah,” she says, laughing now. She puts the photo back. “Yes. Iris. She’s pretty.”

Barry kind of shrugs, like he’s not agreeing or disagreeing and goes back to his work.

“You two are good friends, right?” she asks.

“Yeah,” he says. “Actually, you just missed her. She’s going through kind of a tough time right now. There’s this stuff with her mom. She’s taking it pretty hard.”

“Oh,” Patty says. So, that explains the tears. And the forehead kiss. “It’s nice that you’re there for her.”

Patty smiles. She doesn’t have to worry. It was just Iris.  

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Title clearly stolen from the Gin Blossoms song of the same name, because I'm lazy. 
> 
> Also, Jim/John or John/Jim from Jitters was born solely out of the fact that Iris doesn't really have any canonical love interests that I could find outside of Barry (obvs) and Eddie. Daphne Dean was a girlfriend of Barry's from the comics. I don't think they dated in college though, but that's where I stuck her. Aaaaand, I think the Patty of it all works with the timeline? I feel like we never saw her and Iris actually meet onscreen or, if we did, it was after Barry and Patty were dating, but I'm old and forgetful and it was late when I wrote this, so I didn't check. 
> 
>  
> 
> Lastly, I threw this up really fast, so there may be some formatting issues/changes/tweaks and tag adjustments later.


End file.
